


Cycle 123

by Sephirotha



Category: Mystic Messenger (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Romance, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-19
Updated: 2017-04-14
Packaged: 2018-10-07 17:30:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 14,766
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10365819
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sephirotha/pseuds/Sephirotha
Summary: "I thought you liked the girls I send to you, Seven?  Every single one.  I only create the girls, Saeyoung.  They make their own decisions.  You should do more to attract them.""Just...send yourself.""We both know I won't go for you now, don't we?"It is never over until the Game Master decides when.





	1. Chapter 1

Saeyoung could feel it.  The universe shifting around him as the heroine for the cycle chose her ending and hugged Yoosung tightly with an ecstatic look.  Her face froze in that happy-go-lucky expression as he backed off and walked out of the party hall.  He glanced around at the selection of party guests that the young lady, her name was Vienna this time round, had selected, frozen in motion as they mingled.  The silence was almost deafening as he strolled out onto the street with a melancholic look.  It would be too troublesome to drive back home, with the cars being stuck in motion on the road and all.

Saeyoung looked up at the buildings, glancing around at paused adverts and wondering if Vienna would have been successful enough to have her own video games being advertised so much.  Yes, another woman with an aspiration for game design had been sent this time around.  Saeyoung admitted it, he was attracted to her but she just wasn’t…quite what he wanted.

It is impossible to measure how long it took for him to finally get home.  But when he did, he noticed his computer screens were flashing white.  Loosening his tie, he made his way to sit in front of them and languidly tapped the spacebar on his keyboard.  The image of an irritated looking young lady appeared on the screens.

“What was wrong with this one?” she asked in a clipped tone.

Saeyoung didn’t speak, just took in her face that looked exhausted, as if she hadn’t had any sleep.  She was healthy, he knew that, but she looked anything but.

“Luciel, I’ve stopped trying a long time ago because it’s always the same result no matter what the route.  Hasn’t this game gone on long enough?”

“I’ve told you before what you can do,” Saeyoung muttered bitterly with a bored sigh.

“And I’ve told you before what the result will be.”

The young lady yawned, leaning back in the large leather chair and rubbing the back of her neck.

“And I won’t yield no matter how long it takes.”

“Well neither will I.”

“And that’s how we’ve ended up stuck in this stalemate.”

Saeyoung made a soft noise of displeasure and the young lady sighed.

“I thought you liked the girls I send to you, Seven?” she taunted “Every single one.  You especially took a shine to that girl who was learning coding so she could design games.  There was that biology student but she went for Yoosung.  Then there was that adorable girl who wanted to be a baker but we all remember how she decided to be with Jaehee in that business instead.  You were smitten with that actress who, surprise, surprise, went for Zen.  Of course, who could forget that naughty, naughty psychology student who ran off with your darling brother?  Of course, my favourite was the aspiring writer who fell into Jumin’s arms.  Oh, that was romantic.  And you were on the sidelines watching, pining, wishing for another girl to fill that empty heart of yours.  I only create the girls, Saeyoung.  They make their own decisions.  You should do more to attract them.”

“Just…” Saeyoung muttered “send yourself.”

“We both know I won’t go for you now, don’t we?”

Saeyoung sighed shortly, giving her a pleading look.

“You can’t hold up for much longer,” he said.

“I know the systems in place, Luciel, I know my body is fine.”

She then smirked.

“Of course, you’re talking about my mental condition.  Tsk, tsk, you should never underestimate a young lady’s resolve.”

Saeyoung avoided her gaze as she stretched her arms out with another yawn.

“I remember all their names.  Do you?”

“I can’t remember how many you’ve sent.”

“Well to name a few, there’s Hea, Soo-Yun, Hayley, Kyung-Mi, Florence…and Anne.”

Saeyoung flinched slightly from that name and she smirked wider.

“The most accurate depiction of me and you still didn’t accept it.”

Saeyoung avoided her look and she sighed.

“I must have gone like through every nationality…”

“You haven’t used Russian or Japanese characters,” he muttered, remembering through the background checks of all the girls that had been sent.

The girl tapped her fingers on the keys before actually beginning to type out code for the next character.

“I can…”

“Save it, I’m done with your pleading.  I’m going to just go ahead with the next cycle.”

“Just hear me out, we can reach a compromise!”

“Genius at work here, do not disturb.”

Saeyoung’s lips twitched as he watched her look at screens around her, the clik-clakking of the keyboard echoing in his silent world.

“Gah, my fingers hurt…”

Saeyoung stayed quiet as she complained under her breath, pausing to reach out from behind her and produce a large plastic cup which held her favourite drink: passion fruit bubble tea with extra tapioca.  He watched the small black balls shoot up the straw as her hand worked furiously with the keyboard, remembering the pictures she had on her social media pages.  She was just as addicted to the stuff as Yoosung was to LOLOL.

“Done~!”

She took another long sip, chewing up the tapioca as Saeyoung didn’t bother to comment on how little time she had used for this character.

“Let’s play.”

The universe shifted again and Saeyoung sat up to meet her gaze seriously.

“You’re just damaging yourself.”

The girl gave a confident smirk.

 

* * *

 

Saeyoung’s face disappeared from her communication screen and she sighed.

“Sheesh, he’s no fun when he’s depressed.”

She took another sip from her bubble tea then glanced at the figure that was hovering behind the mass of screens, keyboards and other complicated looking technology.

“But it doesn’t matter because this will be the last cycle.  I’m sure he’ll like you.”

The figure didn’t move.

“Have fun~!”

She disappeared, leaving the girl to lean back again, bouncing and spinning on her chair.


	2. Chapter 2

_Yoosung: Failed my midterms fml T_T_

 

Saeyoung sighed as he typed in his well-rehearsed response to Yoosung’s crying.  This again.  The same, only slightly changing script for the oh so important prologue for the player.  It was so boring and Saeyoung wasn’t even bothering to look in the chatroom.  He was focused on the security feed.  The girl had already arrived and was focused on the chatroom on her phone.

She…was eerily motionless as she sat in the desk chair as if she belonged there and reading the chatroom with a solemn face.  It was as if she wasn’t bothered that she was in a strange apartment that a stranger directed her to.  The cameras recorded footage in black and white but it was easy to tell that she had long fair hair and looked oriental.  She was tall, taller than average perhaps.  And she was wearing jeans and this arguably adorable floral sweater.  She felt strange, she was dressed to come off as a cheerful, happy girl but her face wasn’t showing any of that.

“Hurry up,” he hissed to the chatroom, as Zen hopped into the discussion.

 

_Yoosung: Oh… So you become a candidate for nepotism the same time you’re recruited!_

Ding, ding, ding!  There was his cue!

 

_707: Wait!!!_

_Yoosung: Why?_

_ZEN: ??_

_707: **Think someone entered the chat room;;**_

_Jumin Han: Sachiko…?_

Huh, a Japanese name, looks like he’ll be studying up on Japanese records.  Maybe, depending on her background.

 

_ZEN: Wtf.  How did it get in here?_

_707: **Hacker!**_

_Yoosung: Hacker!?  Therae’s a hacker in ouer room!!_

_Yoosung: Sevnee do somethign!_

_ZEN: Hey, typos. -_-;;_

_707: Wait a sec.  I’m searching._

He was searching the Korean database already, in case she had been raised in the country before considering international records.  He doubted she would have come from overseas.

 

_Sachiko: Hello._

_Yoosung: **Gahhhh it’s talking!!**_

Sachiko had sent the message perfectly on cue, like a robot.  Saeyoung sighed to himself.  Maybe she’ll go down Jumin’s route.  He was a favourite after all.  Saeyoung watched as the chat questioned Sachiko before announcing that the IP was from Rika’s apartment.  Yoosung went into the typical freak out he had all the time when greeted with this information.  Jaehee politely asked for Sachiko to reveal more information whilst Jumin went into threatening mode.  Saeyoung’s lips quirked into a smile.  It was amusing that they’d expect a supposed hacker and intruder to confess.

What nerved him was that Sachiko was sitting there, waiting patiently and her face didn’t even twitch.  No giggles like other girls, no nervous fidgeting, not even twirling that long fair hair of hers!  She was just…sitting there.  Was she an actual robot?

Saeyoung’s eyes lit up.  That would be so cool.

Jumin was getting agitated now because they had gone off topic in the chatroom and Saeyoung snickered behind his hand.  What an interesting bunch of characters, at least it wasn’t too dull despite watching the events unfold again and again.

 

_Sachiko: My name is Sachiko._

That was it.  That’s what she typed in.  Her name was Sachiko, plain and simple.  Sure, like they didn’t know beforehand.  Then everyone began introducing themselves.  Saeyoung gauged Sachiko’s reaction.  Nothing.  She was just watching the screen and reading calmly.  Eventually the question was brought up about how she got to the apartment.

 

_Sachiko: I downloaded the messenger app then received this address to go to along with a password.  The person who messaged me had the name ‘Unknown’._

Straight to the point.  No fuss or anything.  And she was just watching the screen for a response.

 

_Jaehee Kang: Where did you download this messenger app?_

_Sachiko: A friend wished for me to download a messenger app to communicate to them privately.  I must have downloaded the wrong one._

Saeyoung frowned.  A customised answer, probably to add more background to the character.  Eventually Jaehee brought up the idea of contacting V and he was on his spare phone, dialling his number.

“Luciel?” V eventually answered.

“Security breach, we’ve been hacked,” Saeyoung said bluntly as he glanced at his screens that were running the background check.

“What?” V sounded startled and caught off guard.

“They’re in Rika’s apartment, they’re in the chatroom…”

He fell a little quiet, staring at the rather empty record of Sachiko’s phone.  It was new, very new, it had been bought this morning.

“Luciel?”

“Hang on.”

He began typing away, looking into the details of the purchase.  New bank card, new bank account, the only activity being that she had submitted a couple million won then used the new bank card to buying the phone.  But he did get a full name.  Sachiko Sakurai.  OK, no problem, he now had a legitimate name to use to browse…

“I’m logging on.”

Saeyoung jumped, forgetting he was on the phone to V.

“OK.”

He hung up and focused on writing to the chatroom and doing Sachiko’s background check.  He then realised that he had neglected to inform the other members that she was ‘a cute girl’.  Which she did look cute but she certainly wasn’t acting like one.

Saeyoung read through the list of profiles with Sachiko Sakurai’s name but it was suspicious that she shared a name with a famous actress.  Maybe _somebody_ was too lazy to put forward a name this time and chose one at random.  She was a little on the otaku side…

V needed to get a full debrief in the chat because Saeyoung was too preoccupied with how clean Sachiko seemed to be.  She didn’t have any texts or contacts on her phone nor any pictures.  Surely she would have transferred some stuff from her old phone?  And why couldn’t he find any of her social networking profiles?  A young girl like her _must_ have some digital footprints.  Or maybe Sachiko Sakurai was a fake name?

Saeyoung snorted.  She knew better than to send an obviously suspicious person.  Then again, she could be a refugee or something, which is probably why he couldn’t find much of her social networking.  But where could she have gotten her money from?  He’ll need to check the Korean database…

Ah…

Saeyoung sighed as he realised he was definitely going to go through international records.  But wait, shouldn’t border control have any information on her in that case?!

Saeyoung looked to the security feed and jumped when he saw Sachiko had lifted her head to look directly at the camera that was by Rika’s computer.  He shrunk back, feeling as if she had the ability to look through the camera and at him.  He glanced at his phone, the chatroom was empty except for him and her.  He looked at her as she didn’t take her eyes off the camera but her finger moved.

 

_Sachiko: Pleasure to meet you._

 

Then she signed out and locked her phone, not taking her eyes off the camera.  She then stood and walked away from the desk.  Saeyoung saw in another camera that she was settled on the bed and she had a bag of stuff with her.  It felt suspicious but maybe she really had only arrived in South Korea today.  He will need to check the airport security.

“What have you created?” he murmured to no-one in particular.


	3. Chapter 3

_707: I feel like Zen and Jumin_

_707: **are like cats and dogs.**_

_707: lololololol_

_Sachiko: A keen observation._

Saeyoung bristled as he glanced at the camera which showed Sachiko at Rika’s desk, on her phone and just reading and replying as if she was waiting for cues like him.  She always sat at the desk when interacting with the app as if it was a business.  She was also very uptight; her responses were to the point and she didn’t join in with his jokes.  She didn’t even find Jumin’s, ahem, ‘unique’ sense of humour funny. 

She did seem to have a hobby though.  She drew pictures on pieces of A4 paper that she had in her bag.  After inking them, she would put them up on a wall and they were well done and interesting.  His favourite one is the shadowed person doing parkour in the city during night time.  She was creative and she wasn’t shy to discuss Jumin’s projects.  Yes, she was definitely going to go down his route.

Saeyoung stuck to the script, glancing at another screen which displayed all the information he had found.

 

**Name: Sachiko Sakurai**

**Gender: Female**

**Blood Type: A**

**Date of Birth: 1 st January 1996**

**Zodiac Sign: Capricorn**

**Height: 175cm (without the heels)**

**Weight: 62kg**

**Occupation: Unemployed**

 

The somewhat sparse list went on.  There was little to know about her.  It had been a miracle to find her birth certificate which verified her birthday and age.

 

_707: I should make a smartphone for Elly, lol._

_Sachiko: You will need to consider the fact that she has paws and lacks opposable thumbs._

He smiled.  Her creative side was definitely something he liked about her.  Probably the only thing he liked about her.

 

_707: Accio V!_

_V has entered the chatroom_

_707: Wow!_

_V: Luciel.  Oh, Sachiko’s here too._

_Sachiko: V, your timing is impeccable._

Saeyoung snickered as he continued with the script.  He glanced at the security feed, a little disappointed to see that Sachiko hadn’t even blinked an eye at his amazing God Seven skills.  Like wow, who did he have to kill to get this girl to smile?

V signed out and he continued with the chat, typing with his eyes on the security feed since he could do the script off by heart.

 

_707: Follow me and eat Honey Buddha Chips all the time and sleep late_

_707: So ur life will get so much better, lol_

_Sachiko: I highly doubt that._

Not even a lol?  Or an emoji?  Was she really twenty-one or like forty-one?  Wait, even people in their forties, heck _fifties_ used emojis and lolled.  Saeyoung signed out with a bored sigh before watching the screen intently for the next part.  Saeran on cue hacked into the app and typed in his usual jumbled messages.  Sachiko didn’t blink, just signed out and locked her phone.  What the actual fuck?

Saeyoung sat back to reflect on the past few days.  Sachiko didn’t seem to side with anyone, she just put in her own honest thoughts which would often fit into neutral ground or just agree with different people at different times.  She didn’t even answer phone calls.  Whenever someone tried to call her, she would decline the call.  She responded to text messages though.  Still, this was _not_ a good way to play the game.

“Damn it.”

She didn’t like it when he called during the game but he just had to complain.  Sure, she’s a nice enough girl but he felt like she was dangerous, there was something she was obviously hiding.  And he couldn’t reset until an ending’s been chosen. 

“What?”

Sure enough, she was definitely not happy when he called.  The young lady looked very irritated, her hair was messed up and bags were under her eyes.

“Haven’t been sleeping enough?” he asked as he pulled up another screen to see her medial monitor “…No, you haven’t.”

“I was going to turn in but someone decided to ruin my evening,” the girl yawned then frowned “Ugh, I need to brush my teeth.  What do you want, Luciel?”

“Just call me Defender of Justice, God 707!” Saeyoung cheered with an encouraging grin.

“ _Luciel_.”

Saeyoung slouched and sighed.

“I can’t find much shit on your character’s background,” his mood turned sour immediately “Why doesn’t she have any social networking profiles at least?”

“Maybe she’s enjoying something called life?” was the snarky comment.

“Oi.”

The girl rubbed her eyes, her lips in a sad pout as she did so.

“Is that really what you called me about?” she whined “Why doesn’t she have any social networking accounts?  Maybe she never got interested.”

“Bullshit, everyone has at least one social network account.”

“Look, Luciel, what do you want from me?  She’s nice, isn’t she?  You like her, right?”

“She is hardly an appropriate heroine for a dating simulator.”

The young lady rolled her eyes.

“Do you want me to reset, is that it?” she drawled and Saeyoung dropped his head down, glaring at his desk and massaging his temples.

“Look, we can talk about this.  I’m sick and tired of it too, just please hear me out.”

“Ahem, Luciel.”

Luciel looked up to see the young lady had lifted her arms up high enough to show cuffs that were black with neon blue lights streaking down them.  She shook her wrists and he could hear the collected sounds of chains moving with her.

“I’ve told you I’ve wanted out since day fucking one,” she snarled “You were the one who put me here with these devices, I thought you wanted a girlfriend to keep you company but you rejected the first one.”

“I want _you_.”

“You _can’t_ have me.”

The girl dropped her hands onto her lap, the chains shifting with her.  Saeyoung ran his hands through his hair.

“One hundred and twenty-one girls, Saeyoung.  She’s the hundred and twenty second.  I’m running out of ideas here!  Why do you have to be so stubborn?!”

“Because I don’t want them.”

“Oh stop being a spoilt baby!”

“What makes you think I’ll want her?” he suddenly snarled “She doesn’t laugh, she doesn’t side with anyone but herself, she’s tall.”

“What’s wrong with tall women?”

“She’s supposed to be Japanese but she has light coloured hair, she just doesn’t…work.”

“That is sexist, Luciel.  Women can look the way they want.”

Saeyoung leaned back and glared to where his cars were parked.

“She’s dangerous, I can’t find any record of her moving to here or where she went to school.”

“Well maybe she was home-schooled or something, you can’t always find everything off the web!”

“I _hack_ into governments, it took ages to find a birth certificate.  Is she a fugitive?  Is that what she is?  If so, why are you sending dangerous characters in?  We’ll just end up with another bad ending!”

“Flo wasn’t dangerous, she was just a little mentally unstable,” the girl sniffed.

“She doesn’t answer phone calls.”

“Neither do I, I’m terrified of picking up the phone to talk to someone.”

“She has a permanent poker face!  She covers up her entire body so I can’t verify any birthmarks or scars or _something_.”

“You pervert.”

Saeyoung pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Just clarify something for me,” he said calmly “…Is she a robot?”

“What because she doesn’t show her feelings?  Tch, you’re not suspicious of Jumin when he does that.”

Saeyoung bit his lip and froze when the universe around him shifted.  The girl then smirked.

“Oh?  Despite all that, she still chose your route.”

Saeyoung tensed and looked at her with wide eyes.

“What?”

“You thought she was going down to Jumin?  No, you showed more interested than Jumin, so naturally…”

“But…the projects…cats…her pictures…”

The girl sat back and yawned.

“I’m going to bed,” she declared loudly “Goodnight, sir.”

The screen went black and Saeyoung grabbed his phone to flick through the chats.  Yes, she had sided with the members equally but she expressed her interest in him which the system took into account whilst setting her route.  Saeyoung lifted his eyes and stared ahead blankly.

“It’s…just been a while…”


	4. Chapter 4

The seventh day’s end approaches.  It was approaching five o’clock.  Saeyoung was nearing the apartment, keeping an eye on the screen where he saw the security feed in the apartment.  Sachiko was, as usual, being a freaking calm robot who wasn’t at all bothered at the fact that there is a freaking bomb in the apartment!  Like come on, he’s had girls screaming, girls crying, girls shaking on the bed clutching onto one of the pillows, none of them decided to just sit in the desk chair, keeping updated on the app and just…wait. 

Saeyoung let out a short breath, he just needed to park the car.  He then glanced at the screen in alarm when he saw glass fly from the window.  Sachiko turned to look at Saeran who had come in a little earlier than anticipated.  Shit, he wasn’t going to get there on time!

Sachiko didn’t seem threatened when the window broke, she just got up calmly as Saeran slid through the broken window.  He greeted her, she didn’t respond.  Or at least she probably didn’t, given that Saeran looked agitated after speaking his line.  He then continued his lines, saying all that stuff about being the hacker, talking about the invitation et cetera.  Sachiko just stood there, hands in pockets as if waiting patiently for him to finish. 

He was running out of time so ended up parking in the middle of the road because it looked as if she was going to head straight into a bad ending at this rate.  It’s not like there was a lot of traffic in this area anyway.  He grabbed the phone and shot off towards the building, keeping an eye on the feed.  Saeran was extending his hand out to Sachiko, who was still standing, watching and listening.  She didn’t make any movement to take his hand.  Saeran looked even more agitated and then the security system finally got the command to deactivate.  He looked surprised as usual and tried to grab Sachiko.

What happened next was a little unexpected.

Sachiko moved out of the way to avoid his grab.  He tried again and she knocked his hand aside then pushed him back.  He stumbled, eyes getting angry then tried lunging for her.

By the time Saeyoung reached the door, he saw that Sachiko was restraining Saeran instead of it being the other way around.  Saeran was sporting a bruise on his cheek whilst Sachiko looked a little out of breath.  When he came in, they both glanced at him and Sachiko let Saeran go, stepping away from him as he recovered, looking furious and confused.

“Sachi, you OK there?” Saeyoung broke the tense silence and Sachiko nodded.

“Shit!  Why are you here?!” Saeran spat at him, nursing his swollen cheek.

“You’re the hacker, right?” Saeyoung said as he glanced at Sachiko who had retreated back to the desk, her body tense and ready to fight again if necessary “You’ll go to jail for breaking and entering like this.”

Saeran pulled out a button and Sachiko’s eyes were fixed on it, shoulders shifting slightly as she prepared to act if necessary.  Saeran then pulled his voice changer down and smirked at Saeyoung.  Saeyoung, ever the actor, went along with the script.

“No way…”

“Do you know me now?” Saeran taunted as his thumb moved slightly when Sachiko moved a little to the side.

Her eyes were fixed on the younger twin rather than the older.  Well, of course, he was holding something that could potentially kill the three of them.  She knew the threat, she had her priorities straight.

“I prayed so that I wouldn’t meet you,” Saeran said venomously “Because I knew that seeing you would remind me of my pathetic life…!”

“Why are you here?!” Saeyoung screamed, eyes darting to check Sachiko’s reaction (still stoic with her eyes fixed on Saeran’s button) “You’re Saeran, right…?”

“Don’t call me that!  You don’t deserve to say that name!”

Sachiko’s eyes went back and forth on the button when Saeran brandished it threateningly to Saeyoung.

“When did you learn to hack?”

“Shut up!!!”

Sachiko stepped forward when Saeran stepped towards him.  The younger twin backed slightly away from her, his eyes wavering as he eyed her up and down.  Saeyoung swallowed uneasily.  This was a rather different scenario than usual considering the heroine had the upper hand on the antagonist.

“Let’s talk, Saeran,” Saeyoung pushed forward, trying to hurry the scene along and mustering up his improv skills “Together.  Let Sachi go…”

Although it didn’t look like she needed help.

“I brought her here, she’s mine.”

Saeran looked at Sachiko who looked taut, ready to spring when pushed.

 “Besides, why do you care?  Saeran smirked “Do you have feelings for her or something?”

Hardly.

“I can read everything on your mind, you know,” Saeran taunted “So I can just do whatever to this girl to make you suffer, right?”

Saeyoung looked at him then glanced at Sachiko.

“If anything, it looks like she can take care of herself.  You’re outnumbered, Saeran, leave now.”

“A stranger has been located,” a voice echoed through the apartment.

“What is that saying?” Saeran demanded.

“The special security system, I restarted it and it’s only starting to work now.”

Like why did it have to be so slow?!

“Sensed location of stranger, adjusting target.”

“You’re a stranger, Saeran.  The whole place will explode if you stay here.  Get out of here!”

“Shit…!” Saeran backed off and glanced at Sachiko.

She wasn’t wearing shoes, but she was still tall and intimidating.  She swaggered at him and he was out the window in no time flat.  Saeyoung sighed and glanced at Sachiko.

“You alright?”

Sachiko nodded and Saeyoung glanced down to be careful where he was stepping because of the glass.  His eyes widened when he saw bloody footprints and glanced at Sachiko’s bare feet.

“Oh, you stepped on the glass.”

Sachiko gave him a slow blink before lifting a foot and seeing shards of glass embedded.  It looked as if she had only noticed it now.  Maybe she had been too caught up in the action to realise.

“I think there’s a first aid kit in the bathroom…”

Saeyoung winced when she put her foot down and walked over to the bathroom.  It didn’t look like she was in pain and Saeyoung grabbed the broom to brush most of the glass shards into a corner.  He glanced up at the wall to see seven neatly inked pictures posted up, one for each day she had been here.

“Hey, you’re really good at drawing, you know.”

Sachiko nodded as some form of a gesture to say thanks.  Saeyoung glanced at the window and sighed.

“Damn, how could he have gotten up here?  This is like the fourteenth floor.”

Sachiko scooped her phone up and typed something into it.  He got a text from her.

_There are many ways to get into a window that is over a hundred feet high._

Saeyoung frowned and glanced at her.

“You can’t tell me that like normally?” he prodded “I’m right here, I have ears, you can speak.”

Sachiko stayed silent as she looked at him.

“What, are you shy~?”

Sachiko placed her phone down and beckoned him closer.  He moved closer, making sure not to slip on the blood and leaned in.

“Yes~?”

She opened her mouth.  Saeyoung’s smile dropped after a few seconds.  Sachiko lacked a tongue.


	5. Chapter 5

“What kind of sadistic, psychotic goddess creates a character who has had her tongue cut out?!”

The girl held her phone away from her ear as Saeyoung shouted at her.  She took a moment to allow herself to recover before placing the phone closer.

“Good evening, Luciel.”

“What happened to her?!  What kind of childhood did she have?!”

The girl pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed.

“And what is with her not showing any emotions or not showing whether she’s in pain or not?  She stepped in glass like it was nothing and I had to pull twenty-three shards from her feet!”

“Oh no, is she OK?”

“I don’t think so!  There was blood everywhere!  It took a good long while to convince her to go to bed to keep off her feet.”

Saeyoung let out a tired sigh and the girl crossed her legs, the shackles on her ankles moving with the motion with the sound echoing in the dark room.

“OK, she has no tongue, she lacks emotion and she doesn’t register pain,” she hummed whilst twirling a long brown lock of hair “…What’s the problem exactly?”

“My problem is you!”

“Hey, vice versa here!”

Saeyoung let out a long sigh.

“What makes you think I’ll fall in love with her?  She doesn’t open up!”

“Hey, neither do you.”

“Well you know, shit childhood.”

“So maybe her childhood was shit too.”

“What happened?”

“Game Master’s knowledge.”

Saeyoung sighed irritably.

“She isn’t going to open up to me, I know it.”

“Luciel, she showed you that she has no tongue.  That alone is very personal knowledge, she isn’t going to just go around on the street with a gaping mouth to let the whole world know.  Imagine how traumatic it would have been for her when it happened.  It can’t be a pleasant memory.”

She leaned forward as Saeyoung made a disbelieving noise.

“I’m telling you this now.  She is the answer to this stalemate.  Just let her do her thing, let her open up in her own pace.  She is interested in you, I know she is.  She just finds it difficult to express herself, I know I do.”

There was a pause and the girl checked the phone to check that the connection was still secure before holding it closer to her ear.

“I love you.”

The girl grimaced.

“So you say.”

“Is it because he’s rich?”

“Hardly.”

“Do I need to get my own cat?”

“An attractive notion but no.”

“Is it because of the romance?”

“Luciel, I’ve seen you around the few girls that managed to secure your route.  You’re romantic enough although breaking that poor cat robot doesn’t earn you any points.”

“Is it because he’s a kinky bastard?”

The girl’s cheeks went red.

“…Luciel, that is an extremely private and intimate part of our lives so I refuse to comment on that.”

“I knew it.”

The girl facepalmed as Saeyoung chuckled.

“Did he have a BDSM dungeon?  If you had asked for one, I bet he did…”

“This conversation has expired, wait for eight hours until your next chance to call.”

She hung up swiftly with a furious blush.

 

* * *

 

Saeyoung chuckled at the tone that sounded in his phone before hanging up.  He looked up at the sky.  Sachiko hadn’t talked to him since she showed her stump of a tongue.  He shivered at the sight which he wasn’t going to forget any time soon.  There hadn’t been anything in her medical records to mention her lack of tongue or her supposed ability to not be able to feel pain.

Ah, speaking of medical records…

Saeyoung swiped a few times on his phone to see different meters and monitors.  The heart monitor displayed a slight raise in activity and he just smirked.  It was cute when she got flustered.

As he stared at the numbers and data, he began realising why Jumin enjoyed controlling the environment around his women.  Not that she allowed it after they got married, Saeyoung had seen through the CCTV that they got into arguments and when she had turned to the messenger, she complained.  She complained about how Jumin insisted that she stayed within the building, about how she had been forbidden to eat her favourite sweets because of the nutritionist’s advice and of course, this was the most ridiculous one, Jumin had thrown out her favourite shirt because apparently, he thought of it as an eyesore.  She screamed at him when she found out and went off the radar for a solid twenty-four hours.  That had been enough time to realise the error in his ways, find the shirt, redecorate the penthouse to a romantic setting and call Saeyoung seventy-two times in ten minute intervals.

Saeyoung remembered finding it difficult to track her because she abandoned her phone at the penthouse and it just aggravated him to see Jumin’s number light up his screen despite telling him time and again that he was working his ass off to find his neglected wife.  And it didn’t help that Jaehee went AWOL too.

Long story short, she had grabbed the assistant, loudly announced that she was taking a day off and would compensate her for her work hours then took her for a surprise girl’s outing for sixteen hours.  Jaehee had left her phone behind so no-one could contact her. 

Saeyoung grinned to himself as he remembered when the girls arrived back at their respective homes with freshly manicured nails, relaxed smiles and bags of clothes and in Mrs Han’s case, video games and plush toys whilst Jaehee had thirteen different brands of coffee.  Jumin hadn’t looked so relieved to see his wife.

Saeyoung remembered hoping for an argument to push the two of them apart so they would divorce and she would eventually warm up to him.  He had so many terrible thoughts whenever they broke out into a fight, it felt like he didn’t deserve her, but he was beyond caring…

An icy wind encouraged him to retreat into the warm building.  He made his way up and carefully let himself into Rika’s apartment.  It was dark with just the light of his computer screens showing the outlines of furniture. 

He hadn’t gone in far until he felt the hair on the back of his neck prickle.  Then a dull chop hit him in the back of his neck and he fell forward.  When he tried to look at his attacker, he could see a set of heels before blacking out.


	6. Chapter 6

 

His head ached as Saeyoung finally woke up.  He tried to stand up but something was holding him back.  He blinked groggily in the dim light as he noticed wire strapping his wrists to the arm rests of a chair, some cable keeping his torso secure to the back of the chair and more wire keeping his ankles in place with the legs of the chair.  He moved his head, seeing that he was still in the apartment and he wasn’t alone.

“Sachi?”

Sachiko glanced at him from the bed.  She had his laptop open before her, papers scattered around her with scribbled notes in Japanese characters and she had swapped out the cutesy pastel coloured clothes with black.  A fair coloured wig hung carelessly across the pillows as Saeyoung registered that Sachiko’s hair was actually black and her eyes, reflected off the light of his screen, were red.  No, not quite, there was something off with her right eye, like it was half purple but half red.

“You’re…”

Saeyoung wet his lips as he felt that his throat was dry.  Sachiko stood and walked over to the computer on the desk which faced him.  She leaned over, typing on the keyboard.  The screen lit up and the bubble tea lover was there, sipping on another cup with a surprised look.  She pulled away, chewing on the tapioca and swallowing before leaning closer.

“Good job, Rena!  I was getting worried…”

“Rena?”

Sachiko, or Rena, nodded and bowed to the girl before retreating to the bed and continued using his laptop.

“Hey, don’t touch that!” he snapped and he was ignored “What is this?!  You really sent a dangerous person to the RFA?!”

“You’re alive, aren’t you?” the girl drawled before taking another sip.

“What is this?  Who is she?!”

“Aw, spoilers much?”

Saeyoung glared at the girl as he tried to free himself but the wire was cutting into his skin.  He glanced at Rena who was still looking at his screen and scribbling on a new piece of paper.  She was working like a robot, she could give Jaehee a run for her money.

“How did you even get access to my computer?” Saeyoung demanded “How are you able to hack into it?!”

“Hey, you and Saeran are like twenty-two and can engage in hacker wars,” the girl drawled.

Saeyoung glanced at her then glanced back at Rena.

“You’re an agent?”

Rena didn’t respond as she reviewed her notes.

“I guess you could call her that,” the girl answered for her.

“Why is she…?  Are you working for Mint Eye?”

Rena barely blinked as she set a few pages together then turned to grab a fresh piece to write on.

“Rena’s wonderful, I’m proud of her,” the girl smiled “Have you seen her drawings?  When she was around nine she would take a week to draw one but she’s improved so much.”

“What is she looking for?” Saeyoung demanded “Please don’t tell me you created a new agency that’s just going to complicate the timeline?”

“Nah,” the girl shook her head “I would classify her as a freelancer in this world.”

She leaned in.

“She’s quite a linguist despite the lack of her tongue, you know?” she smiled “Korean, Japanese, French, English, Mandarin and Cantonese…the list goes on.  She knows sign language and Morse Code too.”

Saeyoung glanced at Rena then glanced at her feet which were in high heels.

“Even Arabic so she’ll be able to get into your place if need be.”

“You actually have to speak to be able to get in,” Saeyoung raised an eyebrow.

_“I can use a software on my phone to dictate for me.”_

Saeyoung glanced at Rena sharply as she held her phone with one hand and wrote with the other.  She then typed something else into the phone to repeat it in Arabic.

“How can you possibly know that amount of martial arts and languages and hacking?  You’re twenty-one!”

“Didn’t you recognise my birthday, Saeyoung?”

Saeyoung glanced at the girl who folded her arms, crossing one leg over the other, the rattling of chains echoing in the small room.

“First of January in nineteen ninety-six was when _I_ was born or did you forget?  Rena’s birthday is the tenth of April nineteen eighty-six, she’s in her thirties.  And she had martial arts training since she was twelve and officially became a freelancer when she was fifteen.  She’s had plenty of time to learn these skills.”

Rena suddenly stood up and stalked over to the dresser.  Saeyoung watched as she picked a mask up and put it on.  It covered her face save from the left corner.

“Oh, are you off now, Rena?”

Rena approached the computer and nodded.

“Don’t let us keep you now, drive safe!”

“Hey!” Saeyoung exclaimed as Rena snatched up his car keys and left the apartment “Wait, where is she going?!  What was she doing with my laptop?!”

“Oh, Saeyoung, I thought you’d have it figured it out by now.”

Saeyoung glanced at the girl as she adjusted her top and stretched her arms.

“She only works for two people.  Herself and I.”

Saeyoung stared at the computer with growing dread as the girl leaned forward and smirked.

“Didn’t I say that she’d be the answer to the stalemate?”

Saeyoung thrashed in his bonds.

“No, wait, she can’t!”

“Apparently, she can.”

“Why do you want to go back so desperately?”

“Saeyoung, I don’t belong, I’m not supposed to exist in this world and I’ve spent enough time here.  Just by coming into this world, I did a lot of damage and the least I can do is fix what I can.”

“Everything’s just fine!”

“Everything is _not_ fine, Saeyoung.  Look at you!  This is not your character and you know it!  If you just let me do the hard reset then I can fix everything!”

Saeyoung looked afraid and the girl’s eyes softened with sympathy.

“Yes, it’s scary to have memories wiped like that but it’ll be the best solution for everyone.  I don’t know how long it will take for Rena to get here but just sit tight and let it happen.”

The screen went black and Saeyoung’s eyes darted around, locating his phone.  He needed to be quick.


	7. Chapter 7

The girl straightened up and glanced at the door that was far from her grasp.  It was knocked off its hinges and from the darkness Rena appeared.  The girl’s eyes lit up.

“You really did find me,” she said as Rena strode over with Saeyoung’s necklace.

She held her cuffs out and Rena pressed the cross into the indents, clicking them open one by one.  The girl sighed as she slipped off the chair and rubbed the marks around her wrists.  Rena towered over her silently as she petted herself up and down to adjust her clothes.

“Right, let’s get out of here.”

Rena turned to lead the way but stopped after taking a step.  The girl’s eyes widened when four figures manifested in front of them.  Each of them looked up with sadistic smirks and eerie eyes and the girl felt sick.

“One Saeran is usually more than enough,” she whimpered as the four Saerans clicked their necks in unison “Ah, wait, how did they even get here?!”

The Saerans blocked the door, not really moving much and the girl glanced at Rena.

“By any chance did you find me in the mountains?”

Rena nodded and the girl swallowed.

“Blow me down, he can legitimately summon other characters,” she muttered as the Saerans leered “But only from other routes!”

She reached out to touch Rena’s back.

“Don’t hold back.  We can regroup in the city.”

Rena shot off and delivered an uppercut to one of the Saerans at the front.  Two lunged for her to pin her arms and she clicked her heels to reveal the blades and proceeded to attack to kill with them.  The Saeran who was on the receiving end of the uppercut was down on the floor, nursing his chin whilst the spare raced for the imprisoned girl.  The girl darted to the side and sprinted for the door.  She leapt over the wounded Saeran who tried to grab her ankle and disappeared into the dark corridor.

Rena wrestled with the Sareans that tried to hold her down, flicking her heel to stab at their legs.  When all she could do was graze them, she grabbed one by his choker and threw him off, sending him crashing into the monitor.  She twisted to punch the other and wrestled him off.  By the time, she was free, the other two Saerans were already chasing her creator and the Saeran who had crashed into the monitor tackled her to the ground.  Rena glanced at the two of them, her eye cold and calculating.  She was going to be here for a while.

 

* * *

 

The girl rushed through the dark corridors of her prison, noticing the two Saerans behind her and quickly tapping something into her phone.  She turned and held it up to her pursuers.  Two ladies materialised before the Saerans, each delivering a kick to their jaws.  The girl turned to continue her escape as they landed, the one with dark green hair smirking whilst the silver haired girl kept a stoic face.

“Oh.  My.  God!”

The one with dark green hair suddenly squealed.

“Two Saerans _are_ better than one!” she jumped up and down as the clones recovered and glared at them.

“Counterpoint.  No, it isn’t!” her partner barked sharply.

“You would be happy if it were two Jaehees, Amber,” the overeager girl pouted.

“Why do I forget it was you who ran off with the creep?” Amber facepalmed before bringing her fists up.

“Hey, let’s forget all this and just have a foursome,” the girl grinned as she still brought her fists up and beckoned the Saerans closer.

“What is wrong with you?”

“Shouldn’t the question be, what’s wrong with you?”

“…No, the question is what is wrong with _you_!!”

The Saerans charged forward as the girls braced themselves for their fight.

 

* * *

 

The girl finally stumbled out into the mountain park, sighing in relief and glancing around to notice the sunrise.  She sighed again, taking in the fresh air before making her way down.  She needed to find a place to hide out, somewhere where Rena would be able to find her.  She can’t get to close to Rika’s apartment since Saeyoung was there and probably with an army and his phone and that was a recipe for trouble. 

Maybe hide at Yoosung’s school, posing as a student?  Nah, she’ll have to fabricate an ID card and that might alert Saeyoung to her whereabouts.

Hide at Jaehee’s coffee shop?  Oh, no, wait, she doesn’t have a coffee shop in this route.

What about Zen’s dressing room?  …No, she’ll have to break and enter into the theatre and that wasn’t fun the first time around.

Saeyoung’s place was an absolute no-no, especially since she didn’t have an Arabic phrasebook to help her and what if he had a special security system in case this sort of thing happened?

The girl gasped as she reached the outskirts of the city and had to crouch to catch her breath.  Her head was spinning.  There must be somewhere in this place that might help her hide until she can get Rena.

“You are…?”

The girl lifted her head, panting and noticing Zen in his jogging gear, an earbud out as he stared at her in surprise.

“Zen!  Do you remember me…?”

“Of course, I do, babe.”

But one look into his eyes had the girl alerted to the fact that he wasn’t the Zen from this route.

“You look exhausted.  My place is near, we can have breakfast together.”

The girl backed off with wide eyes.

“…Zen, say my name.”

“Hm?”

“My name say it.”

The Zen clone looked annoyed but it only showed briefly.

“Babe…”

“Nope!”

She shot off again and the Zen clone chased after her.  She ran as fast as she could, remembering that he was a fast jogger and he would catch up to her eventually.  She brought her phone out but before being able to tap into it, she crashed into someone.  She fell over backwards onto the pavement, wincing as her phone clattered beside her.

“Anne…!”

Anne’s heart leapt as she looked up to see who she had run into.

“Jumin…”

Jumin stared down at her with a rather gobsmacked expression before wincing and nursing his temples.  Driver Kim was by the car he was about to get into and Anne felt time freeze.  She covered her mouth.  Jumin could remember her just by seeing her.


	8. Chapter 8

“Anne?  No, how do I…?”

Jumin placed a hand on his head as pain flooded his senses.

“How can you be my wife?”

Anne sat there on the pavement, jaw agape as she stared at Jumin in disbelief.

“You can recognise me, you can remember that we got married…” she muttered as Jumin stepped away.

Footsteps alerted her to her chaser.  She jumped to her feet and turned to see the Zen clone rushing towards them.  She moved closer to Jumin.

“Excuse me.”

Her nails light raked down his suit, finding the inevitable cat hair that was left behind from Elizabeth 3rd.

“Hey!  Zen!”

She turned on her heel as Jumin blinked slowly to process her actions.

“Meow!”

She threw it in the clone’s face.  It stumbled with wide eyes and stopped to have a hysteric sneezing fit.  Anne darted around Jumin to continue running but he grabbed her arm.

“Come.”

Anne yelped as she was dragged into the car and Jumin ordered for Driver Kim to get going.  She awkwardly buckled herself in before glancing out the rear window to see the Zen clone disappear when they turned the corner.  She sighed in relief, swabbing and nursing her itching thighs.

“Talk.”

“Eh?!”

Anne glanced at Jumin with wide eyes who sat back, crossing his legs and looking mildly irritated.

“We’ve never had a wedding, this is the first day we’ve met, so why do I know you as Mrs Han?”

Anne blushed brightly as Jumin leaned closer.

“Um, uh…it’s complicated…”

“We’ve got time.”

“Direct as always,” Anne muttered as she scooted a little further away “Uh, um, how much do you remember about me?”

“We’ve been married for at least three years.  Or we would have been.  We’re not actually married right now and this perplexes me.”

Anne shuffled awkwardly before glancing at him.

“Uh, yeah, no, in another timeline we would have been married for three years.”

She scratched the side of her head awkwardly, glaring down at her shoes.

“Jumin, this world you live in is easily manipulated, especially since your god lives amongst you and can reset the time back to the day…when a new member of the RFA joins.”

Jumin’s eyes widened slightly and Anne poked the car floor with her foot.

“Um…I was that member once upon a time and that was when we met and got romantically involved.  Then came the three years of an arguably rocky marriage.”

“Hm?  You were happy.”

“Yes, but you threw out my favourite shirt!”

“It was an eyesore, it didn’t flatter your figure!”

“Oh my God, it was something to wear when I wanted to spend the day inside just being lazy!  No-one was going to see it!”

“I have to see you in it!  Or had to!”

“Jumin, don’t get me angry.”

Anne glowered at Jumin and Jumin couldn’t help but smile a little.

“We often got into arguments, didn’t we?”

“It’s because you do things behind my back without talking to me.  Remember my personal assistant that you hired and she just showed up one day whilst I was wandering around the place in my underwear?  What did I even need her for?!”

“You’re disorganised and clumsy, a security guard wouldn’t have been enough to make sure you were safe.”

“Since when do I need an assistant to be a housewife?!  And when I wanted to go and find a job…!”

“I earned enough for the both of us, you didn’t need a job.”

“I get stir crazy!”

Anne was glowering at him even more and Jumin still smiled.

“Despite everything, we somehow managed to put our differences aside to come to a compromise.”

Anne sat back a little and sighed.

“Yeah…despite everything…”

She looked a little put out as she glanced outside and Jumin tilted his head.

“What happened?  Did the god reset?”

Anne hunched her shoulders.

“Well, that was my fault.”

Anne kept her eyes down, fidgeting with a guilty look.

“Ugh, I…I don’t know how to put this.”

Her eyes were watering as she fiddled with her hands uncertainly.  Jumin waited patiently as she swallowed nervously.

“Jumin, I’m not from this world.”

Jumin looked even more puzzled.

“What does that even mean?”

Anne didn’t dare look up at him.

“I…I mean…I wasn’t born here in Korea.  Or like on this Earth.  Hell, Anne isn’t even my real name.  This isn’t my real body either, this was something that I made in order to arrive in this world.”

Jumin was quiet for a while as Anne tensed her body up so much that she was up against the car door, keeping as much distance from him as possible.

“I was trying to go back home because I knew that living here might cause problems and it’s not like I purposely arrived here.  I just wanted to continue the original life that I had been living.”

“And leave me behind?”

A cold chill went up Anne’s spine at Jumin’s accusatory jab.

“Ah, I knew how to reset the world so it would have been like I never existed.”

Jumin was giving her a dark look and Anne shrank back.

“Jumin, your Master side is coming out,” she whispered shakily.

Jumin’s look grew darker.  Anne pressed herself into the car door further.

“Yeah, that is a whole new level of yandere right there.”

She yelped when Jumin grabbed her by wrist, unbuckled her seatbelt and pulled her closer.

“Jumin…!”

She went quiet as Jumin kissed her roughly, holding her face in place.  A few moments passed before they parted and Jumin pressed his forehead against hers.

“How can you be so selfish?  Does our time together mean nothing to you?!”

“Of course not!  I don’t want to leave but I know I have to!”

Jumin was glaring at her coldly, his large cold hands framing her flushed face.  Tears brimmed her eyes.

“I have to face my reality sooner or later.  I can’t live here forever, hiding from the life I was born into.”

Jumin was silent as he let go of her face and pulled her into his lap.  She nestled her head into the crook of his neck, gently nudging the top of her head into his cheek.

“So?  What went wrong?”

Anne fumbled with her hands.

“Um, uh, God happened.  Your God is Luciel, he can freeze the world whenever he sees fit and with the right monitor, he can reset.”

Jumin held back a snort.

“This is a terrible prank,” he commented.

“I wish it were.”

They were silent for a little while longer, Jumin placing a hand on Anne’s side to gently caress it.

“Luciel wanted me to reset and go down his path, become his love interest rather than have you.  I refused, saying that I had to go back home and that I should fix the damage I caused as quickly as possible before returning.”

She rubbed her wrist and Jumin noticed the marks from her cuffs.

“I became his prisoner, he refused to let me go until I went down his route.  I accidentally reset the timeline and since then, I believed I could direct his attention away by creating other girls to capture his heart.  Some interested him, others failed, but he never fell in love with any of them.  When I realised that, I knew I needed to create someone to help rescue me.  It took me ages to put together Rena so she’d be able to obey the laws in this world.”

“Rena?”

Anne glanced at him then frowned.

“Ah, I can’t remember what name she put forward but your newest member in the RFA.”

“You mean Sachiko.”

Anne nodded and Jumin sighed, leaning back.

“So now you’re here.  What’s your next move?”

“Rena and I got separated, I need to lie low until we can regroup then get to Rika’s apartment.  The computer there will let me access the broken codes which need to be fixed and I can administer the hard reset.”

Jumin looked displeased and Anne tilted her head.

“Jumin, please…”

“And if I won’t allow it?”

“Jumin, that Zen clone was working with Luciel and he’s got others around, eventually they’ll…!”

Horns sounded and they clung onto one another when the car jolted and Anne nearly flew out of Jumin’s arms.  Jumin looked up and lowered the window which separated the passenger area from the driver.

“What happened?”

Driver Kim stuttered as he pointed to a car that had crashed and was now upside down in the middle of the road.  There were people surrounding it and a figure slid out from a broken window.  Jumin’s eyes widened in disbelief as Anne went pale.  She patted herself up and down as the Jumin clone outside stood and brushed itself off.

“My phone!”

“Can you turn this car around?”

“There’s too much traffic.”

Anne opened the door and bolted before Jumin could stop her.

“Anne, get back here now!”


	9. Chapter 9

Anne legged it down the pavement, her eyes lighting up when she turned the corner to see her phone was still where she had dropped it.  Normally she wouldn’t have panicked this much by losing her phone but in this world, it was the sole thing she needed if she wanted to avoid going back to being a prisoner.  She slipped and skidded towards it, wincing as she grazed her legs.  She grabbed the phone and glanced up briefly to see the Jumin clone coming for her.  She tapped into her phone quickly, jumping to her feet.

The Jumin clone grabbed her and tried to snatch the phone off her.  She struggled with him as she began tapping with one thumb and gasped when an arm went around her neck to choke her.  She grabbed the arm to try and loosen its grip, bucking and trying to keep her footing steady.  Her phone emitted a bright glow once she was done and a woman materialised before them.  Her brown eyes blinked before narrowing.

“That ain’t no way to treat a lady, yer bastard!”

Anne gasped for air when the woman’s fist collided into the clone’s face and pushed him away from her.  She rubbed her throat as the woman put herself between the clone and her.

“Yer got a lotta nerve,” she snorted before pulling out two handguns.

Two shots and the clone disappeared into a collection of pixels that blinked out of existence.  Anne sighed as she bowed her head.

“I knew having a criminal would come in handy,” she muttered.

“Tch,” the lady snorted as she lowered her guns.

“Anne!”

They went straight up again, poised for the real Jumin who came around the corner and froze when he saw the weapons.

“Gwen, heel,” Anne sighed and Gwen lowered her guns, putting them away and stepping back so she was behind her.

Jumin stared at Gwen before sighing and straightening his tie.

“Another girl you sent?” he drawled and Gwen sneered at him.

“Yeah, I don’t like yer too much either, pal,” she spat.

“ _Gwen_.”

Gwen folded her arms and pouted as Jumin approached them to pull Anne away from her slightly.

“Where will you be safe?” he asked as Gwen glowered at him.

“Rena would have had an apartment somewhere in the city,” Anne muttered as she gave Gwen a stern look “Now before you go and try to lock me up in your penthouse, I doubt that would work because that would be a spawner for copies of you.  Your office block wouldn’t be a good idea either.  Anyone else’s home is not a good idea either, I just need to keep moving.”

Jumin was returning Gwen’s silent glare as he placed both hands on Anne’s shoulders.

“Anne…”

Anne rolled her eyes.

“Don’t give me that tone, Jumin.”

Jumin looked torn as he looked down at Anne sadly.

“Don’t leave me.”

“Jumin…”

They froze when Gwen pulled out her gun and aimed it at Jumin.

“The lady says she wants out, she’s gonna get out,” she snarled.

“Gwen!”

Jumin eyed the gun warily as security guards stepped out of the block behind them.

“Yer safety and ticket outta here is what’s important,” Gwen said simply “Yer said it yerself, this place is screwed over because of the cycles and why did yer have to put a censor on my language?!”

“Trust me, it’s needed,” Anne sighed as Jumin nodded in agreement “Gwen, put down your gun, I’d rather you not shoot my husband.”

“Yer not even married,” Gwen growled as she lowered her gun and eyed the guards that were prepared to tackle her.

Anne looked up at Jumin and reached up to hold his wrists.

“It is what will make me happy, Jumin.  This world is distorting enough because of all the data I created from coming here and producing my characters.  A hard reset will wipe the slate clean and I’ll be able to go home where I won’t do more damage.”

“The world can crumble for all I care,” Jumin said bluntly and Gwen facepalmed.

“Out of all the guys…!”

“ _Gwen_.”

“Yer should have picked that college kid.”

“Guinevere.”

Gwen tensed up at her proper name and faced away.

“Tch.”

Anne looked up at Jumin.

“It’s the right thing to do,” she said calmly.

“A world without you is worthless to me,” Jumin said with sad eyes.

“Yer won’t even remember her!”

“Gwen, circle the block, check that there aren’t any more clones.”

Gwen grumbled under her breath as she reluctantly walked off.  Anne sighed in relief.

“All my characters are programmed to be loyal to me and depending on their personalities, they show it differently.”

Jumin gave a distasteful look at Gwen before she disappeared around the corner then looked down at her.

“What damage is there?  Is a hard reset truly the only way to fix it?”

Anne nodded.

“Being here is distorting the normal reality that exists here, it’s against the data which makes up the universe.  I don’t even know how long I am allowed to stay here.”

Jumin looked down at her, his eyes forlorn and his grip on her shoulders tight.  He parted his lips then looked up sharply.  Anne barely turned around when she felt Jumin bring her closer to his chest and heard something crack.  She saw a Zen clone at out of the corner of her eye being attacked by a knife. 

When Anne managed to twist herself round enough to take a better look, the Zen clone disintegrated into pixels and Rena landed, sheathing her blade heel and looked at Jumin.  She cracked her knuckles before bracing to attack.

“Rena, wait, this isn’t a clone!”

Rena blinked and stood up straight, calmly holding her hand out.  Her silent request was obvious, hand over her creator.  Jumin tightened his grip on her.

“Jumin, this is the best route to go if we want each other to be happy.”

“All those memories,” Jumin said lowly “Our wedding day, our honeymoon…even the bad memories have value to them.”

“I know, I know,” Anne’s eyes welled up with tears.

“How can you just forget them like that?!”

“I’ll never forget them!”

Jumin hesitated as Anne looked up at him.

“I could never forget our time together.  Those memories, they may be forgotten but that doesn’t mean they never happened.  It was because…”

Anne trailed off as she nibbled her lip.

“I risked the world’s existence to stay longer with you,” she said “I wanted to make more memories, I wanted to stay longer, but no good will come out postponing the inevitable.”

She gently pushed herself out of Jumin’s grip and held him at arm’s length.

“And maybe I won’t find what I had here in my real world,” she murmured “That doesn’t matter at all.  What matters is that my time here was probably the best I’ve ever had, even if this isn’t reality anymore.”

She smiled up at him sadly.

“I can’t just hide in my fantasies forever.”

Jumin bowed his head.  That all too familiar selfish feeling washed over him.

“Please…say you’ll stay.”

Anne tilted her head, her face falling as the tears finally flowed down.  She parted her lips but apparently, Rena believed they had enough time for a ‘goodbye’ and grabbed her arm.  She dragged her across the pavement and Anne ran with her.  Jumin watched them leave, standing there and letting the selfish wishes and thoughts flood his mind.


	10. Chapter 10

Rena fixed the silencers onto her guns as Anne sat on the bench, tapping into her phone quickly.  Another girl materialised before her, looking around with bleary eyes and yawning.  Rena stared at the new girl blankly, her red eye taking in the blonde wavy hair and the over the top magician get up.  The girl took in her surroundings before spinning her cane and tipping her hat.

“Don’t even try pulling a rabbit out of your hat,” Anne was quick to say and the girl sighed.

“If magic isn’t what you wish, then why have you summoned me?” the girl looked irritated as she crossed her arms.

“Sabrina,” Anne raised an eyebrow.

Sabrina stared at her for a moment before clenching her fists.

“I am not stealing diamonds and pearls anymore, that was just a little teen phase!”

“Yes, but you have the skills to enter a building with people patrolling about without being seen,” Anne crossed her legs and placed her hands in her lap “We’re just asking you to be a scout, Sabrina.  You just need to get into the apartment block where Rika’s flat is, assess the situation then get out to report.”

Sabrina looked really upset at this idea, folding her arms.

“Can I at least just do one trick?”

“You are not summoning Jaehee…”

Anne went silent when Sabrina produced a very large cup of passion fruit flavoured bubble tea with extra tapioca.  Extra, _extra_ tapioca.  Sabrina smirked as Anne stared at it long and hard before taking it.

“Just go,” she mumbled before sticking the straw in her mouth.

Sabrina bowed before tapping her cane on the ground.  A puff of smoke covered her figure and once it cleared she was gone.  Neither woman looked impressed as Rena took out her phone and Anne took a long, loud slurp of bubble tea.

_Your bladder will burst._

“Worth it.”

_I doubt that._

Anne stuck her tongue out at her.

“You’re a psychopath, you’re not meant to be concerned about me,” she said.

_Must be a bug in my programming._

Anne rolled her eyes as they waited patiently, Rena looking at her phone and gathering up the girls who were already active in the world.  Anne continued slurping the bubble tea, using her phone to browse through the girls that might be helpful to break into Rika’s apartment.

“Try seeing if Gwen can come round, she’d be great for the first line,” Anne said “Amber too, Flo can just hover and prance in whenever.”

_She won’t stay still, so it’d be best for her to be in the front line and Amber can join us as backup._

“No, Amber’s good in the front line but maybe I could summon Serenity and hopefully have her appear as Mikaela…”

_Programming that should be easy._

“Oh shut up, I’m still only a student, you Mary-Sue.”

_Oh.  My feelings._

The dictator app didn’t have a sarcastic tone to it but Anne could still hear it nonetheless.  She kept her lips around the straw and sucked in another mouthful of tapioca.  She really wasn’t in the mood for Rena’s sass, or what passed off as sass anyway.

Fifteen minutes passed and Gwen had turned up, sitting next to Anne whilst twirling a handgun carelessly in her hand.  Rena made a casual remark of the lack of safety but that was it, Gwen ignored her anyway.

Anne had finished off sorting out her list when Sabrina appeared in a puff of smoke.  Gwen coughed and waved it away, looking rather unimpressed.

_Theatrics are unnecessary here._

Sabrina stuck her nose up in the air at Rena’s comment.

“And here I was, ready to tell you the info I gathered after my hard work,” she said.

“You will anyway, I command you,” Anne said bluntly.

Unamused, Sabrina twirled her cane and adjusted her pristine top hat.

“Four Rika clones, four V clones, Saeyoung, at least two Saerans, one Zen, four Jaehees, three Yoosungs, two Jumins and four of those security guards that work for Jumin but judging from their eyes, they’re clones,” she listed and Rena was quick to type that down on her phone “At least twenty five people to go through, the four security guys guarding the lobby, Saeyoung, a Jumin and a Zen in Rika’s apartment itself so that leaves eighteen clones more or less evenly spread out between the twelve floors between those groups.”

“OK, Saeran is dangerous, so is Zen, Jumin’s tall and Jaehee knows bloody judo,” Anne grimaced “Yoosung arguably is the least of a threat and maybe V because of his sight and then Rika’s…”

“Armed, she’s armed with guns, at least two of them I counted had guns anyway.”

“…Damn.”

“The V clones had earwigs so I assume they’re taking directions from Saeyoung,” Sabrina folded her arms thoughtfully “There is at least one Yoosung and V clone in the lift so either we deal with the guards and take the clones out for the lift…”

_Negative.  Using the lift will alert the others to cluster at Rika’s apartment.  We’re taking the stairs._

“Fucking stairs!” Anne yelled in frustration as many memories of walking up flights of stairs flashed through her head.

“Oh, so it’s alright for yer to swear,” Gwen grumbled under her breath.

“So frontline take on the security guards,” Anne murmured and Rena nodded “That would be Amber, Flo and Gwen…”

“The Jaehees are quite close, you’ll need someone to be able to handle them,” Sabrina advised.

“You could disorientate them but how long would you last?” Anne frowned and Sabrina sighed.

“I was hoping Rena would help?”

_I need to be alongside her so she can administer the hard reset without fail._

“Serenity, or Mikaela, could take on a V clone or two,” Anne hummed as she scrolled through her list “Mana might be able to handle a Jaehee, at least one anyway.”

_We need to move now._

Anne yelped as Rena grabbed her by the back of her shirt and dragged her off.

_Plan on the way._

Anne pouted, bubble tea in one hand and phone in the other as she walked along.  The world felt empty as the ladies made their way to the apartment building.  It seems like Saeyoung has deactivated all the pointless characters that built up this virtual world.  It was like the calm before the storm, before war.  Anne felt her heart racing in anticipation.  It was all or nothing, she _will_ return home no matter what.

* * *

 

The girls hung out outside of the apartment building, out of the view of the security cameras.  Amber stumbled upon them after about ten minutes, out of breath and looking quite relieved.  Anne glanced at her mid-slurp.  The albino then glared up at her.

“I hate that you had to pair me up with the lunatic ballerina!” she said angrily and Anne raised an eyebrow at her “She’s out of control!  I won’t even begin to explain why she is currently not here and probably won’t be here for about another half hour!”

Anne and Rena blinked slowly as Sabrina and Gwen exchanged a look.

“So that leaves Gwen and Amber for the security guards,” Anne said dismissively “Are we ready?”

“You sure Serenity as Mikaela will be able to handle Jaehee?” Sabrina asked.

“I’d give it fifteen minutes, we just need to get into the apartment, barricade ourselves in and just give me enough time to fix things,” Anne shrugged then glanced at Rena “Lead the charge.”

Rena nodded to her before glancing at Gwen.  Gwen sighed as she pulled her guns out and Amber tightened the bandages on her fists.  Anne glanced at Sabrina.

“Smokescreen, that way we can get the upper hand.”

“It’s like we’re playing Pokémon,” Sabrina grumbled before following the girls into the building.

Anne waited, browsing through her phone and finishing the last of the bubble tea.  She tossed the plastic cup over her shoulder and ran into the smoke as gunshots were fired.  She felt Sabrina’s gloved hand grab her wrist and guide her to the staircase where they proceeded to run. 

Once out of the smoke cloud midway up the first flight of stairs, Anne noticed Rena ahead of them, guns out.  Sabrina had a hand keeping her hat in place, despite Anne saying that she should take it off.

It was the fifth floor that had the Jaehees and Rena needed to reload whilst Sabrina could only distract them for a few minutes.  Anne swiped on her phone and held it up.  A tall girl with long blue hair materialised in the centre of the Jaehees, two of them already targeting Sabrina.  She looked up at them with a sadistic smirk before lifting her skirt to grab the daggers strapped to her thighs.  Rena grabbed Anne to hike up more stairs, despite her complaints on how her knees were hurting.

The ninth floor…

“GOTCHA!”

Had a hyperactive, psychotic ballerina with a bloodlust that could rival Hannibal Lecter’s.  Anne practically jumped into Rena’s arms when Florence smashed her way through the corridor window and wrapped her legs around the Saeran clone that awaited them.  She then twisted her body to wrap her arms around the Yoosung clone to strangle him and they all fell into a mess of limbs.  Rena didn’t hesitate to carry Anne the rest of the way up to the fourteenth floor.  Meanwhile Anne was murmuring under her breath about the slim possibility of Florence being able to smash into the ninth-floor window like that.

Jumin and Zen stood outside Rika’s apartment and Rena tossed her guns, apparently she had run out of magazines.  Anne stood to the side, finding the chance to rush into the apartment.  However, whilst Rena was wrestling with Jumin with her heel blades, Zen was quick to restrain her wrists.  She couldn’t use her phone efficiently and most of the girls who could fight were preoccupied anyway.  Anne struggled with Zen who easily had her above his head with her wrists and ankles held together.

“You really are a beast and not in a good sense,” she snarled as she tried to flail.

Rena was still tussling with Jumin as Zen moved to go back down the stairs, probably to find another clone to help recapture her.  He stopped when the lift opened and Anne yelped when she was abruptly dropped as he was punched in the face.  She landed in a pair of strong arms and she stared up at Jumin, the real Jumin, in alarm.

“What…?”

Jumin set her down before the apartment and looked at her with and expressionless face.

“I had my men follow you.”

Anne still stared at him as the ongoing fight between the Jumin clone and Rena went on in the background.

“Your happiness…is all that I wish for,” he looked a little pained by this and Anne sighed sadly.

She turned her back to him and punched in the code.  The door swung open and Anne stepped in cautiously.  Her eyes widened when she saw Saeyoung at the computer and she lunged for him.  She was quickly strong armed by a Saeran clone that had been hiding out of sight.  She froze when she felt the barrel of a gun pressed to her forehead.

“It was cute to see the magician play spy,” Saeyoung said as he didn’t once look up from the screen “So I knew I needed to change up a few things.  Hello, Jumin Han.”

Jumin had stepped in, hesitating as he saw Anne with the barrel of the gun to her head.

“I wouldn’t try anything, unless you want her to die,” Saeyoung said with a soft smile but a dark tone in his voice.

“A bit pointless considering your ultimate goal,” Anne hissed as the Sarean clone gripped her wrists tightly behind her back.

Saeyoung simply smirked as Anne’s eyes darted around the room.

“You can put up all the defences you want, I will be able to take them down.”

“You won’t be able to come near this computer,” Saeyoung said as his fingers continued tapping away at the keyboard “Especially since we need to find a better prison for you.”

“I’ll still find ways…”

“Without monitors and your little playthings.”

Anne glowered at him as Jumin took another cautious step towards her.

“Luciel, won’t this put our existence in danger?” he tried reasoning.

“I can fix it.”

“You can’t,” Anne said “Luciel, I understand your own coding got damaged when I arrived.  I can fix that and you’ll be able to see reason then.”

Saeyoung ignored her and Anne glanced at the Saeran clone from the corner of her eye.

“I have tricks up my sleeve too,” she said.

“You’re terrible at bluffing,” Saeyoung said with a shrug.

“No, you keep forgetting that I have characters with that one trait that always makes my readers facepalm one way or the other.”

“They’re probably facepalming now,” Saeyoung muttered under his breath as Jumin stared blankly.

“Dramatic entrances!”

POOF!

Smoke flooded the room and Anne heard the dull hit that struck the back of the clone’s head.  She grabbed the gun before it could fall with the body and heard the crash of glass when someone came flying through the window.  The smoke cleared and she handed the gun to Rena who had Saeyoung pinned.  Gwen was standing in front of Jumin, gun pressed under his chin.

“Gwen!”

“Sabrina said that there was a Jumin clone around on this floor!”

“He’s the real one!”

“Seriously?!”

“Just put that down!”

Gwen grumbled as she lowered her gun from the disgruntled Jumin and Anne sat in the seat in front of the computer.  Awkward silence filled the apartment as Sabrina sat on the Saeran clone and Rena pressed Saeyoung more into the floor.  Gwen had her guns put away but was still glaring at Jumin suspiciously.  Jumin returned the glare with a condescending look.

“Bloody hell, five encryption keys, _five_!”

Anne looked stressed as she continued typing away, bits and bytes of data in binary scrolling up the screen.

“Wait, no, _six_?!”

She sighed and Sabrina produced a cup of bubble tea which Gwen handed to her.

“Thank you.”

“You really shouldn’t drink that,” Jumin sighed and Saeyoung made a noise of agreement.

“Shut up, virtual body, doesn’t affect my original one.”

Anne slurped the bubble tea and tapioca up, eyes watching the data fly by.

“Jumin,” Saeyoung croaked underneath Rena’s weight “You could lose all the memories of her.”

Jumin stayed silent as Gwen cocked one gun at him.

“One wrong move ends with a bullet through that robot heart of yers.”

“Gwen!”

“Focus, ya damn teen!”

“I’m twenty-one!”

“Then start acting like it!”

“Tch!”

Anne growled then perked up.

“Got it!”

Saeyoung struggled as his eyes widened.  Rena watched as his body glitched in and out of existence, little zeroes and ones appearing around him.

“Don’t…”

He suddenly froze up and disappeared into pixels.  Rena looked around as the girls began disappearing one by one.  Jumin didn’t even have time to react as he disappeared and then Rena herself was gone.  The environment disintegrated slowly save for the desk, chair and computer and Anne.  Anne pouted when her bubble tea disappeared but shrugged, continuing her work.  She then slammed the enter key and everything save herself was gone.  She just stood there in the empty whiteness, sighing in relief.

Anne turned, her heart racing as she saw a small screen that was glowing with information.  She smiled in anticipation and began running towards it.

“Please don’t go!”

She nearly slipped when a voice echoed in the digital wasteland and turned sharply.  Jumin’s image was still there, flickering as he stood, reaching out for her.

“Please…don’t go…” he whispered as his body glitched and Anne stared at him with wide eyes.

“Jumin…how?”

“I can’t go on…please…”

Anne shook her head.

“Jumin, don’t make this any harder than it should be.  I have to leave.”

“I want to keep the memories!  All the good, all the bad, just please don’t make me forget everything!”

“With those memories, you’ll want me back!  You’ll be lovesick all the time and it’s heart-breaking because you won’t be able to follow me…”

Jumin’s eyes threatened to spill tears as he gave her a pleading look.

“Please come back…to the reality that allowed us to meet.”

Anne’s bottom lip wobbled as she shook her head.

“Jumin…”

“Please come back, I can’t go on!”

“Shut up!  You have to go on!  Just let everything go!  Let yourself forget!  I have to go!”

“Anne!”

Anne ran off towards the screen, eyes spilling over with tears.

“Anne, I love you!”

She couldn’t bring herself to shout back her reply as she dove headfirst into the screen.

 

* * *

 

CRASH!

Anne blinked slowly as she registered her glasses first before seeing the ceiling and three concerned looks staring down at her.

“You OK, there?” one asked and she blinked a few more times before sitting up to see she had fallen backwards on her chair.

Anne scrambled up to her feet, patting herself down and sighing in relief.

“Oh my God,” she sighed as she crouched and held her head “I’m back…”

“And this is why we don’t swing on chairs in the ludo labs,” the lecturer came by with a smirk and Anne gave him a sheepish look.

He walked off as other students asked for her wellbeing.  Anne looked at her work monitor and smiled bittersweetly as she saw what was on her screen.

 

BEST END


	11. Chapter 11

“Hey, Gez, how did the coding experiment go?!”

Gez let out a slow, annoyed groan as a young woman sat next to her after finding her in her usual seat, slumped over the desk.

“I hate coding,” she grumbled “I’m just going to be so glad when we finally go into our branching courses next year.”

“Aw, but you said you could have fun with it!” the girl pouted as she pulled her notebook and pens out “Did it at least do anything when you programmed it into your project?”

Gez let out a soft huff and shook her head.

“Huh, you sure?  Did you do it right?”

“Probably not…”

“Aw, and I was so hyped to hear all about it.  You also worked so hard getting all the data possible for a hundred percent completion!”

Gez wanted to smack her former self around the head for wasting so much time, energy and money on the stupid game.

“Yeah, well, rumours are just rumours.  I pretty much just put a bunch of gobbledygook together from hunches, guesses and fucking theories.”

“But it fit together as a code!”

“Well, call it a coincidence and trust me, _never_ do it because you’ll be sorely disappointed.”

Or you know, get trapped in the virtual world of said game.  Gez’s friend looked confused but shrugged.

“So…guest lecture today, should be fun!”

“It’s a CEO of some company, he’ll be ranting on about marketing and shit.”

“Wow, someone got out on the wrong side of the bed today.”

Gez sighed.

“I’m sorry, Jackie, it’s just…ugh…”

Her phone buzzed and she nearly jumped out of her skin.  Jackie leaned over, expecting it to be a notification from the game and looked disappointed when she saw that Gez was getting an actual call.

“What number is that?”

Gez shrugged as she hung up.  A few seconds later the same number popped up again and Gez sighed.

“It could be Luke, he mentioned getting a new phone with a new number…”

“Shouldn’t he be texting?”

 

Gez hung the call up again and glowered at the number when it buzzed again.

“I’ll just take it in the hall,” she murmured and stood up “Shouldn’t take too long.”

She jogged out of the room, nodding to a few students who wandered in and went down the hall a little to answer the phone.

“Hello?”

_“It’s me.”_

Gez froze, staring at the window in front of her with her phone hovering by her ear.  She looked at her screen again, seeing that she was indeed having a call and not some programmed call from the game.  The time ticked by as she held the phone to her ear again.

“It’s who?”

“Me.”

Gez screamed as the voice answered her by her other ear and her phone flew into the air.  She scrambled around, catching and slipping a couple of times before grabbing her phone securely and looking up at the tall man who cancelled the call and put his phone away with a smirk.  Gez’s eyes widened as she recognised his features.

“Ah, I…who are you?”

The man smiled, tilting his head and gazing at her with soft eyes.

“Anne, do you not recognise me?”

Gez continued staring.

“Uh, you look like someone out of a video game or something so unless…”

“A game?” the man frowned slightly as he opened his satchel to pull a business card out and hand it over to her “Maybe this might clear things up.”

Gez stared at the business card and her eyebrows shot up.  She then frowned.

“Jumin…”

“Ah, Gez, you’ve met our guest lecturer, I see.”

Gez glanced to the side as her usual lecturer for this class came and smiled.

“You know where to go from here?”

“Yes, I’ll be there in five minutes.”

“Excellent, don’t keep us waiting.”

With a cheery wave, he walked towards the direction of the classroom and Gez looked up at Jumin.

“How did you even get my number?!  How do you recognise me?!  Why are you here?!”

“We could discuss these things over dinner.  London does have some interesting restaurants but I’m sure your recommendation will be fine.  It’ll be on me, of course.”

“J-Jumin…”

“I don’t see why you altered your body for our universe,” Jumin looked Gez over “Although you could do with losing weight but you are adorable at this height.”

“Jumin Han, I don’t care how important you are, I will murder you on the spot!”

Jumin smiled at Gez’s flustered look and placed a hand on her head.

“It’s still you.  I’m glad.”

Jumin then walked down the corridor to the classroom and entered it.  Gez collected her thoughts slowly before following.  She plopped next to Jackie who was on her phone with the game.  She then swiped Jackie’s phone to look through it.

“Hey!  You’ve got your own copy to play with and you’ve completed it to perfection!”

“Deleted it, took up two gigs of data, needed the space.”

Jackie looked mortified at the thought of deleting the game and Gez’s eyes widened when she saw who Jumin had been replaced by.

Instead of Jumin stroking Elizabeth 3rd, there was Rena feeding two cats, one black the other brown.  Instead of the adorable photo of Jumin at a shoot, there was Rena looking quite bored but photogenic.  There was no trace of Jumin at all, it was Rena in his place but slightly different.  She drunk wine with just as much elegance as the CEO however she didn’t obsess over her cats.  She was definitely living in his penthouse though and a quick glance at Jaehee’s pictures indicated she worked her to the bone like Jumin, just minus the cats.  And apparently, she kept up the persona of a mysterious rich successful lady who had plenty of suitors.  Gez nearly scoffed.  Rena would never have time or patience for a relationship.

_Neither did Jumin._

…Oh.

Gez then noticed that Jackie hadn’t completed Rena’s album and handed the phone over silently, making a note to investigate Rena’s involvement further.

“You didn’t go down her route?” she said slowly to Jackie who quickly moved back to the chatroom area.

“Who, Jaehee?”

“No, her boss.”

“Oh no, saving her until last,” Jackie stuck her tongue out “She’s like a psychopath, works Jaehee overtime and my poor Zenny keeps getting bullied by her.”

Gez smiled at that.  Her smile wavered when Jumin cleared his throat and began his presentation.  But not before he flashed her a secretive smile that had her blushing.


End file.
